Ragas Live Festival

Ragas Live is an epic 24-hour, 24-set festival featuring over 70 world-class musicians. A celebration of what The New York Times calls “the Raga Renaissance, flowering in Brooklyn,” the event features both traditional Indian Classical music and contemporary cross-cultural collaborations. Highlights include the Harvard Ritual Ensemble (Vijay Iyer, Rajna Swaminathan, Yosvany Terry, Ganavya); Max ZT and Karsh Kale; Mitali Bhawmik; Navatman Music Collective & Bulgarian Voices Trio; and Brooklyn Raga Massive’s Coltrane Raga Tribute. Check the link for the full lineup!

Roughly meaning “to color the mind,” India’s classical music is unique in that its modes are only meant to be played at certain times of day; the music harmonizes not only with the other instruments but also with the moods associated with, for example, sunrise or midnight. Inspired by this unique system, a community of 50 musicians descended upon radio station WKCR-FM in 2011 to bring listeners worldwide on a 24-hour journey of sound. Now in its seventh year, Ragas Live Festival brings this harmonizing, immersive experience to Pioneer Works.

The visual experience will be curated by Nitin Mukul, whose videos capture a complex, continuous event of painted frozen solids disintegrating into a liquid. Painting abstractly on thin transparent sheets of ice that build upon layers of color, his ambitious video piece will intersect with each raga’s specific characteristics, blending with the shifting rasas (essences) of the 24 hour cycle.

Ragas Live Festival is produced with the support of the Rubin Museum of Art.